Judging by the discreet front door on Via del Corso, you’d never guess the incredible apartments hidden behind it: boutique stay La Scelta di Goethe, in central Rome, is ideal for aspiring tortured writers and contessas-in-waiting alike. Even the Pope might feel at home in these wood-and-marble-lined, antique-strewn suites (where the eponymous German writer did some serious brooding), with city-wide views from private balconies – and a Jacuzzi-topped roof terrace, which we suspect arrived after Goethe's time here. Friendly touches – like fresh flowers and working fireplaces – are a welcome addition, and the imaginative concierge can book city tours in a helicopter or the best museum slots and supper spots.

Smith Extra

Facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Check–Out

Rates

Double rooms from $1466.90 (€1,309), excluding tax at 10 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €3.00 per person per night on check-out.

More details

Rates include Continental breakfast, served in your suite.

Also

In-room massages, beauty treatments and even an on-call hairdresser are available on request. Showers in suites are equipped with enough settings to make Cleopatra proud: aromatherapy and chromotherapy keep things sweetly scented and colourful, or get hot and steamy with the hammam setting.

Our favourite rooms

Either one of these refined, old-school suites will suit discerning travellers; within, antique furnishings and 17th-century artwork in heavy, gilded frames add a regal air to white walls and wooden flooring. Romantics should book the Trinità dei Monti suite for its rooftop Jacuzzi; channel your inner writer and poet in its well-stocked library. Larger parties can hold intimate dinners in Villa Medici’s dining room, before retiring to the beam-bedecked living room. It’s also possible to rent all 260sq m of Goethe’s former abode; drift between the two apartments via a sweeping marble staircase.

Packing tips

If you stay between May and September, bring as many floaty sundresses as you can, and a hat: Rome is sweltering in the summer. Winter can be chilly, however, so pack a coat and some woolly jumpers. Whatever the month, a pair of trainers won’t go amiss; you’ll walk for miles around the Pantheon (and the shops).

Children

Children are very welcome at La Scelta, and the staff couldn’t be more accommodating. However, these antique-strewn apartments are probably best left to grown-ups, unless your children are saints.

Food and Drink

Top Table

Have dinner on your private balcony. If you're staying in Villa Medici hold a banquet in the dining room.

Dress Code

Waft around the apartment in your best silk robe.

Hotel restaurant

La Scelta doesn’t have a restaurant, but there’s a private chef on hand to cook you whatever you’d like and send it up to your suite; put your meal requests in with the concierge at any time. If you find yourself feeling peckish throughout the day, ask for a charcuterie and cheese board to be brought to your room or balcony, and nibble fresh mortadella while looking out over the Basilica. Breakfast is no stale-croissant-and-coffee affair: fresh fruit juice, pancakes, cereals and organic yoghurts are laid out in a huge spread alongside home-made cakes and pastries. Those looking for something meatier can order sausages or pork-laden platters, with organic eggs any-which-way.

Hotel bar

Each suite’s minibar is fully stocked with soft drinks, beer, water and spirits – if you’re hankering after something in particular, the concierge can send up bottles of wine and house cocktails.

Last orders

The concierge is on call round the clock for food orders; however, between 10pm and 7am guests are limited to cold meals or pasta.

Room service

La Scelta’s Continental breakfast is delivered to your suite every morning between 7am and 1pm; just let the concierge know when you'd like it to be delivered.

Location

Address

Hidden behind the discreet doors of a townhouse, on the corner of bustling Via del Corso, La Scelta’s romantic apartments are high up on the fourth floor, overlooking Basilica San Carlo al Corso.

Planes

Rome’s Fiumicino Airport – well-served by British Airways and EasyJet – is just under an hour’s drive away, and La Scelta can organise transfers in a private car from €80 for up to three guests. Frequent Ryanair flights arrive at Ciampino Airport, which is the same distance away by car. La Scelta can arrange pick-ups from here, too, for the same price.

Trains

Roma Termini train station is just 15 minutes’ drive away from La Scelta. Hail a cab from the taxi rank outside the station (watch out for touts trying to charge a higher fare). Radiotaxi 3570 (www.3570.it) are said to be the city’s most reliable firm.

Automobiles

If you’re brave enough to contend with the Italians’ honking horns, hire a car from the booths at both airports. From Fiumicino, take autostrada A91 to reach central Rome, or arrive via autostrada A90 from Ciampino.

Worth getting out of bed for

It's tempting to take a cue from Johann and waft around in your pied-à-terre, sporting a cravat and ruminating on verse, but Rome awaits… Big-hitters like the Sistine Chapel and the Colosseum are must-sees for first-timers; but if you've been there, done that, got the magnet with a picture of the Pope on it, then head to the Villa Borghese for its lush gardens and colonnaded pavilions – a welcome retreat throughout boiling July and August. Churches are the secret to seeing Renaissance art without museum crowds: Santa Maria in Trastevere and the Tempietto di Bramante are two of the best. When it feels like you’ve done classical art to death, take a trip to the National Museum of Pasta, a 10-minute taxi ride away on Via Flamini, a one-of-a-kind temple to carbs and cooking. You don't even need to leave your room to have the concierge plan a fun-filled day out: chat to him using your interactive TV. He can arrange a limousine to ferry you to the best museums; a private tour of the churches and palazzos; a visit to the nearby golf course; or even a helicopter ride over the city. Or, if you want to make the most of your hideaway, book a wine-tasting session or private cookery lesson (usually around three hours). La Scelta is just a short walk from the boutiques selling Italian cashmere, linen and leather on Via della Croce, and the designer shops on Via Condotti.

Local restaurants

Nearby Casa Coppelle in its namesake Piazza is beloved by Hollywood royalty and the Italian cognoscente; order the salt-and-pepper lobster and saltimbocca from the French-tinted menu. For a more relaxed atmosphere, head to Pierluigi in Piazza dé Ricci. Ask for a table outside on the quiet, cobbled street, and savour the fresh seafood that’s made this eatery a favourite among locals. You won’t be short of something to drink, either: the wine cellar holds more than 600 labels for you to work your way through.

Local cafés

For stubborn homebirds missing the comforts of good old Blighty, a trip to Babington’s Tea Rooms, just around the corner in Piazza di Spagna, will turn that stiff upper lip into a smile. Hidden at the foot of the Spanish Steps, Babington’s has been around since 1893; it’s testament to the café's excellent eggs Benedict and wonderfully English tea. If you find yourself on the other side of the river (which isn’t more than a half-hour walk from the hotel), pop into Biscottificio Innocenti on the Via della Luce for some of the best pastries in the city. Not sure what to pick? In February and March, go for the Carnival-inspired frappe (heavenly strips of sugar-dusted fried dough); year-round, order the jam tarts or ground-almond biscuits.

Local bars

Hip bar No.au in Piazza di Montevecchio has organic wines, small-batch beers and an all-natural, healthy menu. Have the steak tartare or a generous charcuterie board while sipping on an icy Birra del Borgo, and admire the stripped-down decor. Just a 15-minute walk away is picturesque Piazza del Fico, named after its fig tree that’s been there for longer than most can remember. Charming drinks spot Bar del Fico (+30 06 6889 1373) takes its name from the same tree, but also the Italian fico, which translates as ‘hip’ and ‘cool’. Living up to its moniker, the bar doesn’t try too hard: pitch up here for an Aperol spritz and a game of chess with the regulars, and maybe a few light bites from the aperitivo buffet.

Reviews

Anonymous review

So here we are, in beautiful Rome, a city that Mr Smith and I have been only once for a few days and enjoyed so much. A city with an incredible history with so much to see and explore. This time, however, we’re looking forward to relaxing – which isn’t helped when our flight is delayed and we arrive worried about finding an open restaurant for dinner.

As the chauffeur drives us to La Scelta di Goethe I get my phone to search for somewhere to eat. There’s an email from Daniel, the hotel manager, saying he’s aware our flight has been delayed and that we don’t need to worry; they would wait for us to serve dinner in our room. That’s when we realise we’ve chosen the perfect place to stay.

Sure enough, Daniel is there to welcome us and show us around. For a few minutes we forget all about dinner, awed instead by our first sight of this very unusual hotel: no big sign outside and no reception; you just enter an apartment-like building and go through a long hallway to find an unbelievable living room with big sofas, a very high ceiling and a collection of art pieces. There’s a dining room with a table for 12, plus two suites — but ours, he says, is upstairs.

So we climb the stairs to find a living room/library with comfortable leather lounging chairs and walls lined with books. To the right, a spacious room with a dressing table, large bed and a bathroom stocked with Santa Maria Novella amenities (full size – I mean…) Then, we head outside to find the most incredible terrace – although it’s dark, we can see the beautiful lights of Rome – and a lounge with four chairs and an impeccable alfresco dining table.

A chilled bottle of champagne makes us feel even more welcome. It’s easy to see the attention to every detail here: the silver cutlery, the glasses, the presentation of the food and, most importantly, the food itself. Our Italian feast starts with prosciutto and melon, buffalo mozzarella with pomodorini, then amazing pasta. Let’s just say this is not your average room service dinner…

We feel comfortable as if in a private, romantic diner, but any time we need, someone is there for us. Perfect service.

After a great night’s sleep, we wake and head straight to the terrace to see the view in daylight. Wow.

We spy the famous Piazza di Spagna and the Villa Borghese gardens, and many other buildings in our 180-degree panorama. It’s hot but our big over-table umbrella and the gentle breezes make the terrace a pleasant perch. While we wait for breakfast to be served, we hop downstairs to see the living room again and find a wraparound balcony with views over Via del Corso and the dome of Basilica dei Santi Ambrogio, one of the biggest in the city.

Breakfast, needless to say, is amazing. We take the rest of the day to simply relax and enjoy the place — sitting in the terrace to soak up more sun, reading in the library, going to the jacuzzi located some steps above the terrace, and, at aperitivo time, having Aperol Spritzes with two friends from Rome. Normally, in trips to cities with so many things to do, you get that anxious feeling of ‘Where do I start? Where should I go?’ but this time we’re really happy spending time in our Roman home without anything to worry about.

We agree that the most amazing thing about La Scelta di Goethe is the fact that it doesn’t feel like a hotel. It’s more than that. It’s like some Italian prince has let you enjoy his place for a few days with his staff at your service. We also agree that, on reflection, it was without doubt one of the greatest hospitality experiences we’ve ever had.

The Guestbook

Whenever you book a stay at a Smith hotel or villa, we’ll invite you to review it when you get back. Read what other Smith members had to say in La Scelta di Goethe’s Guestbook below.

We loved

We could not fault the service and accommodation. Daniel and his team were on hand the entire time and nothing was too much trouble. We loved the view, the breakfast, the sheets and bathroom products.

Don’t expect

To see anyone else staying there! It's like having your own private Palazzo in the middle of Rome.